Photo: Tea cultivation in Uji, Kyoto, Japan. Hojicha is a distinct type of Japanese green tea that differs significantly from the better-known varieties such as Sencha, Matcha, and Gyokuro. While the latter are renowned for their vibrant green hue and fresh, vegetal flavors, Hojicha is a rich, toasty, and deeply aromatic tea that boasts a characteristically reddish-brown color. The origins...

Tatara smelting is a traditional Japanese technique for producing steel from iron sand. It began in the 6th century in Kibi Province—now Okayama Prefecture—where craftsmen developed low, box-like furnaces called tatara. These furnaces produced tamahagane (“precious steel”), renowned for its use in swords and tools. The intense, three-day process gradually spread across the iron-rich Chūgoku Mountains, becoming central to Japanese...

Takagi Shoten is a fish processing company based in Ibaraki prefecture that has been operating before World War II.A few years ago, Takashi Takagi-sama became the 6th-generation CEO in his family to run the company. Takagi-sama’s primary goal is to use the highest quality fish in his products.Each can offers consumers the ability to track exactly where the fish they...